Becoming a Disciple

I Kings 19:9-21

Welcome! I am excited to begin a new series, a series on the life of the prophet Elisha. If you don’t know much about Elisha or where he fits into the chronology of the Old Testament, don’t worry; that is one of the things we are going to talk about today. We will also look at the events surrounding his becoming a disciple, or follower, or student, of the prophet Elijah.

Now, all of Old Testament history is linked, so it is difficult to know where to begin. But I think a good place to start is with David. The story of David and his son, Solomon, are described in I and II Samuel and I Kings. During their reign, we see the establishment of a kingdom that seeks, from the very top (meaning the king), to worship, follow, and obey God. It did not come without trials or without hardship – David had to deal with Saul, who did not follow God and tried to have David killed, and David also had to deal with border wars. But as time went on, the kingdom was established and stabilized, and under Solomon there was a time of peace and the first Temple of God was built, a place where God, in His glorious Spirit actually took up residence.

Now David was far from perfect; his incident with Bathsheba and sending off her husband to die in battle was a great sin, a sin that had consequences all of David’s life, not just for David, but for the entire kingdom. David’s son Absalom even took over the kingdom through a coup for a time, and David had to endure living through the death of this son. But generally speaking, David was one to repent of his sins and one who, as a rule, sought to worship and serve God wholeheartedly his entire life.

His son Solomon followed him as king, and though Solomon began well, eventually he began to behave foolishly and stopped following God with his whole heart. Recall that Solomon was the one who asked God for wisdom rather than riches, and God answered his prayer with a double portion of wisdom, and he had riches beside. But, as Solomon showed, having wisdom and acting in accordance with wisdom are different things, and over time, Solomon allowed idolatry to enter the kingdom through his many foreign marriages, a practice forbidden in the Law. Solomon entered into marriages with Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Zidonian, and Egyptian wives, and as a part of these marriages, entered into alliances with these people groups who worshiped idols. The alliances led to greater interaction between the Israelites and these people groups, and as a result, some Israelites began to worship these false gods within the kingdom.
 

In addition, Solomon levied excessive taxes and periods of forced labor, without pay, to help provide in part his own excessive desires. God warned the people this would happen if they had a worldly king in Deut. 17.

Because Solomon continued to sin, God raised up enemies to fight against him. One was Hadad, an Edomite who had hidden out in Egypt while David was still alive. Another was Jeroboam, one of Solomon’s favored officials. Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam, but Jeroboam fled to Egypt until Solomon died.

When Solomon did die, his son Rehoboam became king. Jeroboam returned from Egypt, and, speaking on behalf of Israel, told Rehoboam that Solomon had put a heavy burden on the people with their high taxes and forced labor. He asked that Rehoboam lighten the load, and promised that, in return, the people would serve Rehoboam as king. Rehoboam, choosing to ignore the advice of the elders who had counseled Solomon, responded harshly and stated he would make the burden on the people even greater. The Israelite tribes, all except Judah and Benjamin, responded by declaring independence from Rehoboam and set Jeroboam to be their king.

Jeroboam, knowing that the Temple and, indeed, all of Jerusalem was in Rehoboam’s territory, made two golden calves, setting up one in Bethel and one in Dan, telling the people that they could worship their God there. He also set up counterfeit festivals on the dates of the old Israelite festivals and on other dates, telling the people to go to these two altars and make offerings at these times. He set up priests who were not Levites and built other shrines on high places. All of this was in direct and blatant violation of the Law of Moses. The people, who were still angry at Rehoboam, accepted all these changes, not realizing that they had really forsaken the one true God, or even worse, some did realize it but didn’t think that it made much of a difference. True faith became rare in Israel. From this level of jadedness or pragmatism, it was really a small step to move into syncretism, adopting the worship of gods of the surrounding nations, including Baal worship.

From this time on until the time of Elijah and Elisha, and even well beyond this time, Israel remained divided into two nations, one called Israel (containing 10 tribes) and one called Judah (consisting of Judah and Benjamin). In the kingdom of Judah (which included Jerusalem), there were sometimes kings who the Bible says “did right in the sight of the Lord,” although mostly there were bad kings who followed after the false gods. But in the kingdom of Israel, none of the kings were called good or right. A typical description is this, which is in I Kings 15:26: 

He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, following the ways of his father and committing the same sin his father had caused Israel to commit. – I Kings 15:26 

Nearly 60 years after the division of the kingdom into two, after a succession of evil kings, Ahab became king of Israel. It says of Ahab, 

Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him. He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him. He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to arouse the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than did all the kings of Israel before him. – I Kings 16:30-33 

Actions of Baal worship, which had occurred back in the days of the Judges but had been stamped out by David, included the sacrifice of one’s own children and licentious sexual activity including the use of male cultic prostitutes.  This was exactly the kind of worship that was in the land before God gave the Israelites the land back in the days of Moses. They had become exactly what God so hated that He had once wiped out the people who had done these things. And now these same things were being done by God’s own “chosen” people, the Israelites, led by the example of their own wicked king.

King Ahab had a wicked and powerful foreign wife, Jezebel, who seemed to be the one really in charge. Jezebel was not content just to see King Ahab worship Baal; she also sought to put a total end to the worship of the One True God. Towards this end, whenever someone was identified who called himself a prophet of God, Jezebel would have them killed.

Now what really was meant by a prophet of God in time of Ahab and Jezebel? Many believe that these were simply a remnant of people who truly believed in the God of Israel and tried to obey the Scriptures. Many aspects of the Scriptures they could not obey; because of the divided kingdom, it was impossible to go to Jerusalem and follow the required sacrifices or gatherings or other sacred holiday requirements given in the Law. But they tried to do what was right and to get other people to do the same. As such, they were prophets in the sense that they called people around them to repentance and to return to the worship of the true God.

Well, it seems that Jezebel was seeking to kill off anyone who was a “prophet” like this. It says that in I Kings 18:4, Obadiah, a servant of Ahab who secretly was a worshipper of God, had taken a hundred such people and hid them in caves to protect them from Jezebel.

In this bleak environment is mentioned a prophet named Elijah, who boldly declares, almost impossibly boldly, in I Kings 17:1, 

“As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.” – I Kings 17:1b 

Now to understand the significance of this pronouncement it is helpful to know a bit more about Baal worship. Baal was considered the god of fertility of everything – people, animals, and even crops and plants. As a part of Baal’s power, he was believed to be the god who had direct power over the rain. Thus Elijah’s pronouncement, and the resulting drought, was a direct attack on the claims of those who followed Baal.

One way we now have verification of this is the discovery of the Ras Shamra tablets. These texts, excavated from 1929 to 1950, are at the site of what is believed to be the ancient Phoenician city of Ugarit.  From these texts, we see that the Ugaritic religion was identical to that described in the Bible as Baal worship. The father god, El had a wife, Athirat, or Asherat, or Asherah; of her sons, all of whom were gods, of greatest mention was Baal, the storm god who brought rain, and with it, fertility. Baal was called the “thunderer who mounts the clouds” and was depicted as holding lightning bolt in his hand. According to these texts, Baal eventually usurped El, driving him from his place of leading, and taking his wife, Athirat.

These tablets throw clarifying light on other scriptures in the Old Testament, some going back to the Mosaic Law itself. For example, one text says that a form of worship to Baal and Asherat was to boil a young goat in milk.  “Sacred” prostitution – they called someone who did this a “holy one” – was also prescribed in these texts; this is also expressly forbidden in the Law.

Baal was described as being in continual conflict with another son of El, Mot, the god of death. What this meant was that El was continually dying before coming back to life, only to die again and again. It is interesting that, in contrast, the God of the Bible is repeatedly called the Living God. This may be in part a contrast to the “dead” god, Baal.

Anyway, as you can see, God’s challenge, given through the prophet Elijah, was a direct challenge to the Baal-worshipers. Their “god” of rain could surely provide rain despite what this so-called “prophet” said, right?

Well, no. There was in fact a great drought. During the time of this drought, God used Elijah in a variety of miraculous ways, even bringing a boy back to life from the dead, but these miracles were what you might call “local,” observed by a very small number of people. One clear reason for this is that Jezebel and Ahab were searching for Elijah throughout the land to kill him. This is mentioned in I Kings 18:10. But then, in the third year of the drought, God told Elijah to go to King Ahab and declare that the true God would now send rain.

I don’t have time for the details, but this did happen, and he called on Elijah to assemble all the people to meet on Mount Carmel along with his 450 prophets of Baal and his 400 prophets of Asherah. And then Elijah had the great showdown between himself and the false prophets, between the true God and the false Baal.

Elijah had the false prophets set up an altar with an offering of a bull and called on them to ask their god to ignite the wood. They tried, calling on Baal all morning, but nothing happened. Elijah taunted them, and they shouted louder, even slashing themselves all afternoon, but still nothing happened. Then Elijah assembled an altar of the Lord, poured water repeatedly over the wood, so that there was “no chance” it could possibly ignite, prayed a powerful prayer asking that all Israel would know the true God, and that God Himself was turning their hearts back to Him. And then, in what I think is one of the most powerful moments in all of Scripture, I Kings 18:38-39 describes how a fire of the Lord fell and burned up everything – the wet wood, the sacrifice, even the stones and the dirt, and even the water that was in a trench around the offering. The people of Israel, astounded, responded by shouting “The Lord – He is God! The Lord – He is God!”

Elijah commanded the people to capture the false prophets of Baal and he had them brought to a nearby valley and slaughtered there. This was in accordance with the Law of Moses, which said that false prophets should be punished with death.

And then Elijah told King Ahab to go eat and drink, for a heavy rain was here. While Ahab went off to do so, Elijah prayed for rain. Elijah’s servant saw nothing, but after looking seven times, he saw a cloud coming, and Elijah had the servant warn Ahab that the rain would soon come, and so Ahab should hitch up his chariot and leave the mountain. Elijah ran toward Jezreel powered by the Lord, keeping ahead of Ahab, who was also going there. This brings us to I Kings 19. 

Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.” – I Kings 19:1-2 

Here we see the depth of the wickedness of Jezebel. Despite being presented with the clear proof that Baal wasn’t god of anything, certainly not of the rain, which had been prevented by the true God for years and released by the true God, nor of the fire, which despite being pictured with lightning bolts in his hand, Baal was unable to light a lone stick of wood yet the true God walloped burning up even stone and dirt, despite all this, Jezebel responded that she was going to kill Elijah. And apparently, weak-willed Ahab was perfectly willing to go along with it. How did Elijah respond when hearing of this pronouncement? 

Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep. – I Kings 19:3-5a 

Before we are too hard on Elijah, let’s think about the kind of outcome he probably expected: he had been God’s instrument in what was arguably the most powerful display of God’s power since the days of Moses. And he had seen the people turn to God and even destroy the false prophets who had for so long led them astray. He expected true revival in Israel, even a reunification of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, a return to the days like those of David. 

When he heard the threat, he panicked. Did he pray? Probably not. The situation was such a shock, he had such different expectations, I believe, that he took his eyes off of the Lord and gave in to his fear. He fled. And after fleeing, he did pray, but prayed a prayer of shame. He knew that this was not how he should have responded.

You know, we have just finished going through the Gospel of John, and this situation reminds me of Peter, who also gave in to fear, fear for his life. Peter’s response was to deny the Lord three times, but he too later desponded over what he had done. And last week, as we finished John, we saw how the Lord gently restored Peter and went on to use him as the “Rock” of the church. Well, what about Elijah? 

All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again. The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. There he went into a cave and spent the night. And the word of the Lord came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?” – I Kings 19:5b-9 

Recall that part of Jesus’ restoration of Peter was to provide him with food. Similarly, the angel here provided Elijah food and water. Elijah went on to travel 40 days and nights over a great distance to reach Mount Horeb. And whereas Jesus asked Peter, “Do you love Me?” God asked Elijah, “What are you doing here?” 

He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.” The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” – I Kings 19:10-11a 

What do you think of Elijah’s response? I find it very interesting. First, there seems to be some self-justification. Elijah is being defensive. “I have been very zealous!” Then he speaks in generalizations, presenting things in the darkest possible light. Did all the Israelites reject the covenant? No. Is Elijah really the only one left? No. The people have just killed hundreds of false prophets. Many likely now have faith. The last thing he says is partly true – people are trying to kill him, but not all of Israel; just Jezebel and those who follow her. 

When we are defensive, when we portray spiritual situations, disappointments, failures, in the worst possible light, we are being exactly like Elijah. I just want to point out that this is not how we are supposed to be. We need to remember that the battle is the Lord’s, and the outcome is not our responsibility but His. Sometimes people reject our message even when it seems impossible that anyone could do so. And sometimes the result is that we too are persecuted, whether subtly or openly. A mature response is not to be self-defensive, or to see the worst (or even worse than the worst) in the situation, but to simply come to the Lord openly, honestly, expressing our disappointments, our concerns, but seeking Him for wisdom and for direction and for His hand in what happens next. 

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” – I Kings 19:11b-13 

Lots of people have lots of different interpretations about these events, but what strikes me most is that God is gentle. God is not angry, violent – He is not in the devastating wind, or in the earthquake, or in the fire. He is in the whisper; a gentle whisper. One of the Hebrew words here means quiet, or calm. It is a quiet, calm, small voice. And God in the calmness, in the gentleness of restoration and peace, asks Elijah the same question He asked before. 

He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.” – I Kings 19:14 

It is only in this verse that I am truly disappointed in Elijah. I don’t know that I would do any better, but it is disappointing. God had provided Elijah an angel, food, sleep, God’s audible voice, rock-shattering wind, a powerful earthquake, and a sudden fire – God was not “in” these, but He certainly made them happen; they were displays of His power over nature and over the trials of man – and then that gentle calming whispering of God’s voice. But Elijah has not changed. 

The Lord said to him, “Go back the way you came, and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu. Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.” – I Kings 19:15-18 

So the Lord, in His kindness, still does not get angry at Elijah – instead, He gives him things to do; he is to anoint three people. Some have suggested that the three displays of God’s power, the wind, earthquake, and fire, may have been prophetically symbolic of what was to come of these three anointings – the strong wind the work of judgment Hazael would perform against Israel, the earthquake the work of judgment Jehu would perform leading ultimately to the deaths of Ahab and Jezebel, and the fire the work and ministry of the future prophet Elisha.

God also corrects Elijah’s wrong thinking – he is far from the last one who worships God; there are 7000 who have never even lost faith, who have never turned to Baal. And the passage does not say this, but certainly there are other people who, seeing what God had just done in the showdown between Elijah and the prophets of Baal, who would never forget that miracle and who would from then on worship the living God.

And God’s call to anoint Elisha also displays God’s mercy and loving kindness. Elisha was to become the next major prophet of God, and Elijah was to have the task of mentoring him. It would be several years of this mentoring, this discipling, before Elijah’s ministry would end. But I believe this was not a one-way relationship. God also provided Elisha to Elijah to be a support and encouragement to Elijah. Elijah could never again despair and say he was alone, for Elisha would ever be with him, giving him the encouragement that is only available in mutual fellowship.

We are not called to be lone-ranger Christians! God desires us to work together, to minister together, to live together, and to serve together in community, in relationship. As we saw in John, above all, the disciples were to be known by their love one for another. That is impossible if you are alone. And so I would briefly encourage you to let other people more deeply into your life. Find ways to partner, even just live life, with other believers. God desires this not just so we can minister for Him better, but like Elijah, so that we would be encouraged and strengthened and supported. 

So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. “Let me kiss my father and mother goodbye,” he said, “and then I will come with you.” – I Kings 19:19-20a 

So at last we are introduced to Elisha. Twelve pair of oxen was a sign that Elisha apparently was a part of a fairly wealthy family. But although this was the case, Elisha was not sitting at home eating peeled grapes, being attended by servants; he was working in the fields, presumably with the hired hands or servants. Elisha knew how to work.

Let’s talk about the cloak. This was a special, identifiable garment, made of fur. Elisha, suddenly seeing this garment around him, immediately knew what it meant. He had been chosen by the prophet of God, led by God, to be a disciple of this prophet and become a prophet himself.

It is remarkable in itself that Elisha even knew what this meant. Clearly his family had not given in to Baal worship but had continued to worship God and kept to the teachings and traditions of the Israelite people. Elisha immediately left his oxen with the hired hands and went to run after Elijah, who apparently, kept moving. He asked only that he be allowed to say goodbye to his family, and then he would go.

I find this extremely impressive. What would you do? Your whole life is turned upside down in a few seconds. Would you follow? It of course reminds me of how Jesus called His disciples – they too dropped their nets or whatever else they were doing and followed him.

Some people misunderstand the part about Elisha saying goodbye to his parents as some sort of delaying tactic, but that is not it at all. Of course he would say goodbye to his parents; what kind of loving son would just get up and leave without saying goodbye. You may be thinking of Luke 9:61, where Jesus called someone to follow Him, and response the person said “I will follow you but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.” What’s the difference? They look the same, don’t they? The difference, I believe, is that Jesus could see into this man’s heart, and he was using this phrase (which he might have even been proud of to think of, since it was Biblical, and was what Elisha had said to Elijah), but this man’s heart was different than Elisha. The reason I think this is if you go back a few verses to Luke 9:57, a man tells Jesus “I will follow you wherever you go,” but Jesus replies “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” Because the context here is people who end up not following Jesus, we presume this guy was so taken aback by Jesus’ answer, that is, he had certain expectations of comfort that he decided not to follow Jesus after all. The next guy gives an excuse about burying his father, but again, Jesus apparently sees through this excuse into his heart as well.

Anyway, how does Elijah respond to Elisha’s request? 

“Go back,” Elijah replied. “What have I done to you?” So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his servant. – I Kings 19:20b-21 

From what I have read, the phrase “What have I done to you?” means something like “think about what has happened and is happening here.” We might liken it to when Jesus told people to count the cost before following Him.

Now it may at first seem weird to burn the plowing equipment and eating the oxen, but this was basically a celebration. Elijah and his family considered it a high honor to be called to go with Elijah, and using the plowing equipment to cook the meat was symbolic of putting an end forever to Elisha’s old way of life. And two oxen would make a pretty massive feast.

Let me close by commenting on the symbolism of Elisha’s party. We too have been called to be disciples, not of Elijah but of Christ. If you are a Christian, the moment you put your faith in Christ and decided to be “His,” you too were called to leave your old life behind. In the same way that Elisha put on the cloak and began his new life, as it says in Ephesians 4:24, we are to 

Put on your new nature, created to be like God – truly righteous and holy. – Eph. 4:24 (NLT) 

I pray that the image of Elisha immediately responding to the cloak and going forth to be a new disciple would stick with you and motivate you to similarly follow Christ without reserve this week.